Joining the office of Industrial Facility requires certain qualities beyond a design education. We are always interested in people with informed backgrounds and a worldly view. Currently we have no staff vacancies. Internships are available generally for 3 months. Interns should ideally be in full-time education, with a school to return to. We do not financially support internships other than local travel expenses. Independent sponsorship should be sought. Please e-mail us your application (no more than 1MB) stating your preferred period to:

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Credits

This website was designed and built byStylo Design in collaboration with Industrial Facility.

All content in this website is for personal reference and not to be reproduced, copied, manipulated, projected, used or altered in any way, alone or with any other material, or by use of computer or other electronic means without permission.

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Industrial Facility was formed in 2002 to explore the junction between industrial design and the world around us. Our office designs objects of varying purpose in relation to their spatial, cultural and performative landscapes for international companies operating in international markets. Clients value our deeper contribution to their design and business thinking and often incorporate resultant project directions into their broader future. Areas of work include products, furniture, exhibitions, transportation and clothing. The office has emerged as one of the most progressive and creative design offices working in industrial design.

“Industrial Facility creates new identities for lost objects.” Wallpaper magazine, September 2008

Industrial Facility was formed by Sam Hecht and Kim Colin to investigate and contextualise objects so that their potential for progress is revealed. Our staff includes Japanese Designer Ippei Matsumoto, who joined the office soon after its formation and German Designer Philipp Von Lintel. Hecht and Colin have run teaching programs at the Royal College of Art. Hecht has been a Visiting Professor at HfG Karlsruhe and in 2009 he became a Royal Designer for Industry and nominated for the Prince Philip Prize. The office was given its fifth iF Hanover Gold Award in 2014 and won the Designs of the Year award for Furniture in 2011.

“Industrial Facility is on our side – the side of the end-user. And boy do we need them.”London Evening Standard, 2008

Working with Industrial Facility is straight forward. We work with international companies of all sizes in a wide ranging set of industries, from tableware & kitchen products to furniture and lighting, electronics and appliance design. Recently, we have also found ourselves tackling projects for interiors, public furniture, medical devices and exhibitions. All of our worldwide clients share a belief in making things better, which invariably helps to make life better too. To help to understand the structure of Industrial Facility and how we work, we have put together answers to ten common questions put to us.EnglishGermanKoreanJapanese

Joining the office of Industrial Facility requires certain qualities beyond a design education. We are always interested in people with informed backgrounds and a worldly view. Currently we have no staff vacancies. Internships are available generally for 3 months. Interns should ideally be in full-time education, with a school to return to. We do not financially support internships other than local travel expenses. Independent sponsorship should be sought. Please e-mail us your application (no more than 1MB) stating your preferred period to:

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An opportunity arose at Muji, to investigate an affordable small capacity coffee maker that would involve a stainless steel insulated pot, made possible by a new relationship with Toshiba. With the help of Kazushige Miyake who had a sound knowledge of the principles of coffee machine manufacture, a cylindrical tower was proposed, purposefully ignoring existing componentry, and instead being informed by the landscape of use, namely the kitchen. A cylinder meant that it could rightly sit in a corner or on a central counter, resembling the types of items already found in a kitchen.

The design was presented as a simple cardboard tube to explain its concept. It was accepted on the spot. This was followed with proposals for all of the mechanics, water filtration, and in particular, our concept for ‘wrapping’ the water resorvoir around the coffee filter. The design went on to become one of Muji’s most popular products with its customers, and continues to be in production with minor improvements made in 2010.

The Muji Wine Opener and Peg typifies Industrial Facility’s approach to standard, everyday products with a concern for matching basic needs with a comparitive degree of quality, design and price. The design used the concept of appropriation – simple acknowledgement of what is ‘close’ to the object, and appropriate in its dimension. The handle appropriates the diameter of the wine cork itself, and in so doing, becomes a comfortable place to store the foil cutter. This feature is not celebrated, merely hidden and suppressed, so as to not get in the way of its main job of removing corks.

The Wine Peg – produced a year later – adopts the same dimensions as the lower third of its brother the Wine Opener. The lever which is presented as a flat featureless bar that provides a satisfying surface for pressing.

In discussions with Alastair Fisher, director of Taylor's Eye Witness, the subject of low-cost cutlery sold in supermarkets was approached, which could best be described as poorly made pseudo-craft that uses mass-produced methods of production. The cheaper the cutlery, the more grandiose it tries to present itself. The conversation was extended with Muji Europe, who agreed to partner in the production of a low-cost everyday set of cutlery, similar in principle to the conditions of Mono Cutlery designed by Peter Raacke in Post War Germany, where resources were limited.

To do this, Industrial Facility set about looking into a very different direction – not to mimic quality, but to elevate the vernacular of disposable plastic cutlery.

The first experiment was to literally make a transfer of material in our workshop. The result of turning plastic cutlery into metal showed just how beautiful these unseen designs were. It was then a process of refining them, and editing the place setting down to four pieces – including a spork (a combination of a spoon and fork).

The thinking of this design went along the lines of a set of dishes that acted as a ‘meal for two’. Starters, a main dish and dessert. The dishes nestled within the largest one, so making it very compact for storing. Each dish was made from hard paste porcelain and could withstand high and low temperatures. They could move directly from the freezer to the oven, and then to the dishwasher. In 2009, Jersey Pottery commissioned a graphical interpretation of their uses, with ‘Sweet’ and ‘Savoury’ versions being created.

To accompany the IF4000 range of knives, a knife rack seemed a relevant product. But it needed a ‘useful but odd’ character which was very much the interpretation of the company itself.

The Knife Rack presents itself as a simple strip of wood mounted on a wall. When a knife is attached to it, the usfulness becomes visible. The product uses the strength of layered Bamboo in combination with five submerged magnets.